Kei Hirata
| birthday = 2nd February | age = 25 (Physical) 201 (Actual) | gender = Male | height = 181 cm (5'11) | weight = 77 kg (169 lb.) | blood type = O | affiliation = Gotei 13 | previous affiliation = | profession = | position = 6th Seat | previous position = | division = Thirteenth Division | previous division = | partner = Chiyoko Mori | previous partner = | base of operations = | relatives = | education = | shikai = Hyōjin | bankai = | story debut = Dawn of Hardship: Cold Road | roleplay debut = | japanese voice = Ryōhei Kimura | english voice = Clifford Chapin }} Kei Hirata (敬平田, Hirata Kei), is a and the Sixth Seated Officer of the Thirteenth Division in the Gotei 13. He serves under Captain Tamiko Iwasaki. His partner is Chiyoko Mori. Appearance Kei appears as a young man of Japanese descent who looks as he is in his mid 20's, he is surprisingly tall and has a toned and lean physique, having good muscle to fat distribution for his height and weight and generally looking physically conditioned and fit. He has short, matte black hair which is rather spiky and somewhat unkempt. Kei's facial features are naturally thin and lean, he has a rather long, angular nose which curves sharply at it's end, Kei's eyes are a sharp, steel grey in colour, and have a dark Corneal Limbus surrounding his iris, his jawline is sharply defined and his chin ends off with a slightly rounded point, making his face look rather triangular. Kei normally wears the typical Shinigami attire of a , which overall consists of a black and a black , a white , a white and finally a white and that all Shinigami normally wear. Kei doesn't have any visible modifications to his Shihakushō that are notable in any way, he does, however, wear elbow length black arm warmers at all times along with his Shinigami uniform. During expeditions in the , Kei wears casual attire that is inconspicuous in nature, consisting off a plain white, short-sleeved T-shirt, a pair of normal fitting jeans and plain white trainers, also on occasion Kei wears a plain black jacket along with his typical Human World attire. Personality Kei typically displays a distant and dismissive demeanor to most people he interacts with, preferring not to converse with others if it can be so, while he is able to form bonds and relationships with others to a certain degree, they rarely go past being professional in nature, and while it is possible to establish some sort of friendship with him, Kei's cold demeanor typically means he is unable to hold said friendship for any long length of time. Due to Kei's preference of relative isolation and his solitary personality, Kei's reputation with his comrades is strained at the best of times, due to his comrades disliking Kei's flippant attitude while subsequently Kei disliking his comrade's comments about him, often spurring him to make snide remarks towards them when they annoy him to much. His constant friction with his peers causes Kei's teamwork to suffer, as he is unable to properly communicate with his teamates making team specific objectives hard to achieve due to him not working with his comrades properly and faltering. While he certainly dislikes annoying and aggravating behaviour, Kei has a surprisingly long fuse towards any annoying individual, he is generally able to shrug of the annoyances anyone shows for a short amount of time before finally becoming angry and snapping at the person in question. Due to his long fuse, Kei is relatively cool headed in most situations, especially in battle, he is able to keep calm and not be rattled by most attempts to shock him. Also in battle though, Kei displays a fairly warped sense of justice, which was mainly brought on due to his "revenge" on the local Rukongai residence who murdered his family, Kei typically cares little for the severity of his methods in battle, often making amoral decisions which may be wrong or even cruel, usually calling for another person to bring him to his senses. In the past, Kei's personality was quite vastly different from how it is now, during his time living in the safer lower mid-level District of the Eastern Rukongai with his parents, Kei was a lot more sociable and happy, if not slightly coddled, during this time Kei often enjoyed the thought of socialising with friends and would often handle any jabs at his shy nature relatively well, usually laughing it off nervously, despite being shy at times, he would openly state his displeasure at certain choices he disagreed with, a trait which he has surprisingly kept as he has grown up. During his time in the more dangerous areas of the Eastern Rukongai, Kei slowly and gradually lost his sociable disposition and became overly fearful or the new locals and more and more secluded and reserved, after his parents death and after being forced to fend for himself in a hostile environment, Kei's personality once again gradually started to change into his personality at present, becoming significantly more cold and dismissive in nature. Despite Kei's dismissive and distant attitude towards most people, be they comrades or strangers, he has an oddly warm, if not slightly one-sided friendship with his partner and fellow Seated Officer, Chiyoko Mori. Initially their relationship was more typical for Kei, with Kei distancing himself from her, however, due to the two of them being partnered together, and with Chiyoko eventually surpassing Kei's rank while they were in the Gotei 13, they started to become rivals of sorts, before finally becoming genuine friends. Kei's attitude towards Chiyoko is a lot more caring than that of his typical attitude, mirroring that of his younger self slightly. He is able to converse with her more with others, and despite his still cool demeanor towards her, which Chiyoko usually handles well, he genuinely values her as a friend. During his time off, Kei often spends his time training and honing his Zanjutsu skills, usually opting to go to the Seireitei's Dōjō in order to do so, during the times he isn't training, Kei goes into the Rukongai to relax and just walk about quietly. Kei particularly enjoys clear, cold, windless nights and is often seen laying down on one of the roofs of his Division barracks, idly staring up at the sky, stargazing. He has a slight interest in the electronic equipment that the Human World has, usually observing various pieces of equipment which interest him, because of this, Kei has some knowledge on how it works and has amassed a small collection of electronic Human World gadgets that he keeps in his quarters. History Kei was born and raised by his parents in a lower risk mid-level district of the Eastern , during his early and intermediate childhood in the Rukongai, Kei grew up as a relatively happy and social, if not a slightly coddled child, often either helping his parents do chores or just playing with the local kids who had made him their friend. However, despite living in the relative safety and comfort of their District, Kei and his parents started to become more and more financially strained, becoming unable to support themselves and Kei due to their difficulties. The family was forced into moving out of their old District, and moving into a higher leveled and subsequently more lawless and dangerous District of the Eastern Rukongai, despite Kei's pleas of disagreement and fits of anger due to him losing his only friends. During his time in his new new district with his parents, despite the seemingly easier to earn supplies, Kei and his parents quickly become the targets of constant hostility from their new neighbors due to the locals disliking their former luxuries that they had. Due to the consistent harassment of both him and his parents, Kei started to become more timid and increasingly more isolated until he didn't go out of the house at all due to his fear of the locals. A couple of months later, while both Kei and his parents were inside their house, a mod of angry locals abruptly stormed their way into Kei's house, accusing the family of once again stealing and threatening death upon all three of them. The mob them proceeded to viciously attack Kei's parents as they protected Kei long enough for him to retreat out of the mob's sight, however Kei, desperate to see his parents, returned some time after the mob had left, only to find his parents brutally killed and dead. With no one else to support him, Kei had started to steal, lie and even attack others in order to survive like many other orphaned children who shared his fate, however despite being forced to do so, Kei kept feeling guilty for the crimes he committed in order to live. After a couple of months however, Kei started to become less shy and more desensitized to the acts of theft and deception that had previously made him feel guilty, he became increasingly more dismissive and cold towards others, he started to despite the brutes that had murdered his parents instead of fear them, finding a sense of twisted justice in stealing their food and water, living off the lives that lived off his parent's lives and even attacking some of the locals out of anger. Kei continued living like this for a number of years, he kept stealing food and water in order to keep him alive, he kept scrapping both with adults and younger kids and he started to eavesdrop over anyone he could in order to keep himself informed about the world around him, while doing this one day, Kei overheard two men conversing about spiritual power, and how people with large amounts of this spiritual energy could join the Gotei 13, the army of the Soul Society and the home of the Shinigami, who had a guaranteed place of comfort. Kei found this opportunity to take advantage of the higher class irresistible, and after finding out that he had enough spiritual power to at least join the Gotei 13, he immediately admitted himself into the Shinō Academy. During his time at the Academy Kei was extremely cold towards nearly everyone he met, which initially shocked the young Shinigami trainee at first, as he had memories of making loads of friends and being overtly social, however, despite his shock, he continued through his education, eventually forgetting about his change in personality and his lack of care for his peers. During his first aptitude test, Kei ultimately failed due to his lacking skill in Zanjutsu, the Shinigami art of swordsmanship, forcing him to retake his last year in order to have another attempt at his test, during this year Kei trained extensively in Zanjutsu, becoming so absorbed in the art that he started to neglect his other areas of combat, however, in his second attempt he managed to pass with slightly above average grades and he was initiated into the Gotei 13, as an unseated member of the 13th Division. After he became a member of the Gotei 13, Kei continued with his Zanjutsu trained along with his new duties, coldly ignoring his peers and become more dismissive and removed from his Division. During one of his practice sessions, Kei was called by his Captain to introduce a new recruit to the division, Chiyoko Mori, Kei was assigned to become Chiyoko's partner and to help her train and improve, initially, Kei completely ignored his new partner, acting cold towards her and openly stating to her that she was annoying, however, as they both raised through the ranks, and with Chiyoko starting to surpass Kei in skill, they started to become rivals, changing Kei's perception on his partner and finally warming up somewhat to her, and gradually developed a genuine friendship with Chiyoko. After a couple of years in continuous service, Kei managed to attain the position of a 6th Seated Officer while Chiyoko subsequently attained the position of a 5th Seated Officer, both of them being assigned as each other's permanant partner due to their surprisingly co-operative relationship. Powers and Abilities Trivia *As an ever developing character, Kei has been initially portrayed as a relatively weak individual who throughout his adventure grows in both his power and his personality, eventually realising his full potential. *Kei's two themes, as chosen by his author are Pinch Battle, from the Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor OST as his main battle theme and Power For The Future from the Tiger and Bunny OST as a theme for when Kei faces an extremely challenging situation which requires him to use all of his strength. Appearances Bleach: Enduring Path The Dawn of Hardship Arc *''Dawn of Hardship: Cold Road'' *''Dawn of Hardship: Unfolding Road'' Category:13th Division Category:Character Category:Male Category:Shinigami Category:Fanon Character